Meaning of “prostitute” in the English Dictionary

British
American

"prostitute" in British English

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prostitutenoun [C]

uk /ˈprɒs.tɪ.tjuːt/ us /ˈprɑː.stɪ.tuːt/

C1 a person who has sex with someone for money

More examples

She sued the paper for damages after they wrongly described her as a prostitute.
She accused him of having phone sex with prostitutes while she was away on business trips.
I noticed a couple of prostitutes plying for business on the corner.

prostituteverb [T]

uk /ˈprɒs.tɪ.tjuːt/ us /ˈprɑː.stɪ.tuːt/ formal disapproving

› to use yourself or your abilities or beliefs in a way that does not deserve respect, especially in order to get money: Some critics say he prostituted his musical skills by going into pop rather than staying with classical music. He went to work in Hollywood and was accused of prostituting himself.prostitute yourself formal › to have sex for money

(Definition of prostitute from the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

"prostitute" in American English

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prostitutenoun [C]

us /ˈprɑs·tɪˌtut/

› someone, usually a woman, who has sex with people for money

prostituteverb [T]

us /ˈprɑs·tɪˌtut/

› to sell yourself by having sex with people for money, or to force someone else to prostitute himself or herself: Hundreds of widowed or hungry women have had to prostitute themselves to survive.fig. Some critics say that he is prostituting his writing talent (= using it in a way that does not deserve respect, esp. to earn money).

(Definition of prostitute from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Translations of “prostitute”
in Korean	매춘부…
in Arabic	داعِرة…
in Malaysian	pelacur…
in French	prostitué/-ée…
in Russian	проститутка…
in Chinese (Traditional)	妓女，娼妓…
in Italian	prostituto, -a…
in Turkish	fahişe, orospu…
in Polish	prostytutka…
in Spanish	prostituto, prostituta…
in Vietnamese	gái mại dâm…
in Portuguese	prostituto, -a…
in Thai	โสเภณี…
in German	die Prostituierte…
in Catalan	prostitut, -a…
in Japanese	売春婦, 娼婦…
in Chinese (Simplified)	妓女，娼妓…
in Indonesian	pelacur…

What is the pronunciation of prostitute?

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“prostitute” in British English

1noun
- prostitute
1verb
- prostitute

“prostitute” in American English

1noun
- prostitute
1verb
- prostitute

SMART Thesaurus: Using and misusing

“prostitute”: synonyms and related words:

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Women and biscuits: common pronunciation errors in English

by Liz Walter,

November 04, 2015

There’s no getting away from the fact that pronunciation in English is difficult. Unlike many other languages, the relationship between the letters in a word and its sound is often weak, to say the least. For this reason, there are pronunciation problems with extremely common words which I notice over and over